Love Lost
by carcar2110
Summary: A girl is found in the stasis booth on an abandoned derelict. She joins the crew on the Dwarf and begins to fit in, but when a decision she has to make could possibly ruin her newly made friendships, what is she to do?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Grant Naylor, except for my OC (who will remain nameless until she appears in a later chapter). I do not own Red Dwarf, I just like to use the characters! Please don't sue! :P**

**A/N: Okay, another fanfiction! I couldn't figure out what to write for Childhood of a Smeghead, and this one was on my computer from ages ago, so I've decided to put it up! I've already almost finished chapter two, so that should be up soon!**

**If you haven't already noticed, I am basically 'in love' with Rimmer. Not like 'OMG I WANNA HAVE UR BABIES' love, just in love with the character himself. He's just so complex when you actually take the time to understand him. He's funny too, even though he's a smeghead. And he has wicked curly hair, which I am familiar with :P**

**This is an AU story. I got the idea for this a looooong time ago whilst trying to fall asleep in a hotel room :P There is dialogue taken from Stasis Leak in this chapter, just so you know. This is basically just an introductory chapter to explain Rimmer's situation-ish thing.**

Chapter One

Rimmer was standing in front of the locker, back to the bunks. Lister had just exited the sleeping quarters to go get the spacesuits. He had just opened the door when a voice from behind him started speaking. The voice was too familiar, and it made Rimmer start.

"I don't want you to panic, Arnold. I want you to stay absolutely calm. I'm coming out in a moment, and I want you to keep your cool. Are you ready? Here I come."

Rimmer watched in horror as a head rose from the top of the slate-grey table, with a head of unruly curly hair and flared nostrils identical to that of his own. In fact, everything about this head was exactly like him. It _was_ him. The only difference was that this Rimmer had a huge, silver hologrammatic 'H' on his forehead. The Rimmer in front of the locker took a step back in shock.

"There, that wasn't too bad, was it? Look, we've found a stasis leak on Floor 16. I'm dead now, and you're not, but if I save you, you won't die, so I won't die, and you won't be dead either, and neither will I." The Rimmer head said, smiling. The present Rimmer looked at his cup of tea with a look on his face that was a mix between unbelieving and confused. He looked back up at the head, and spoke.

"I may as well tell you right away I know what you are." He said, leaning back ever so slightly.

"You do?"

"You're a mushroom, aren't you?"

"I'm a what?" The head said, confused.

"A hallucination. Go away!" Rimmer said to his head, which in his mind sounded very strange.

"No, look, I'm you from the future. I've come to warn you, in three million years you'll be dead."

Rimmer scoffed. "Will I really?" He said sarcastically.

"Yes, unless you do something about it now."

"What do you suggest?" Rimmer said. "Give up white bread, more roughage?" He was beginning to question his own sanity. Here he was having a conversation with his own head. Not something usually considered normal.

"Look, you're not listening. You've got to go into stasis." The head said, and Rimmer was silent. Something, a memory from a long time ago, suddenly wriggled its way into his head. A little boy, aged nine or ten, asleep in the dorm of his school, being woken up by a man with an H on his forehead. The man told him to invent something called the Tension sheet, but he never did. However, that didn't matter. It was the man that mattered. The man with the huge H emblazoned on his forehead. It had never occurred to Rimmer to find out who that man was. It had never occurred to Rimmer that, as he grew from that young boy into an adult, that he was becoming that man he had seen. The man was him. He was the man. It was him, from the future. It had to have been. What else _could_ it be? Rimmer stood for a few moments, opening his mouth to speak, then closing it again, and then opening it once more.

"You're not a hallucination, are you?" Rimmer said shakily, and the head smiled.

"Finally we're getting somewhere!" It said.

"Do you mind explaining this?" Rimmer said, pulling a chair up to sit down.

Rimmer speed-walked through the corridors of the ship, going as fast as possible to the stasis deck as he could without looking out of place. He turned corner after corner, getting closer the whole time.

The hologram version of himself had told him what to do – go into the stasis booth. That was it. So he made his way, wondering why exactly he had to. Was something the matter? Was the ship going to explode? Whatever it was, all he knew was that if he didn't go to stasis, he would die. Plain and simple.

He rounded one last corner, and saw a solitary booth. This was the one that he was to use, because it was older and less used. Rimmer inhaled deeply. He strode over to the door, unlocking it and letting the door swing open. He stepped inside, and the it shut behind him. He faced the window in the door, and the stasis field kicked in.

That would be the last thing he would do for three million years.

**So there's chapter one. Hope it was good, and I'll try to get the next one up soon as well. But, the more reviews I get, the quicker it'll be up! Anyways, please tell me what you think of it, any constructive criticism is welcome but flames are not. And, totally unrelated to the story, I turn 14 tomorrow! Lol, just had to put that in there! Anyways, please review! Ta!**

**Carly**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DWARF! That is only a fantasy of mine.**

**A/N: Haha! I got it! I had to revise it cos I had originally started the story a different way but still had this part written, and some of the stuff from before didn't fit with what I had changed, so I had to edit it. If anything doesn't make sense, that's my fault, so tell me and I will rectify it!**

**PS: I turn 14 today! Lol, just thought I'd mention that. Anyways, story time!**

Holly stared out of his visual unit morosely. He had been staring at the same spot on the wall for hours now, waiting for something interesting to happen. He knew nothing would, but still he waited. Perhaps a group of penguins would burst into the room doing a ballet, and, in the highly unlikely situation of that happening, he didn't want to miss it.

Holly was lonely, but he would never admit it to himself. He had a perfectly good reason for being lonely – he had been on his own for nearly three million years. It hadn't been too horrible for the first couple millennia, but after a while things became dreary and mundane, and Holly felt it weighing on him. He could feel his intelligence slipping away after years of not using it, and it troubled him. By the time the milestone of two million years alone came and went, Holly had deduced that he was almost certainly going senile.

But all of that would soon change, because in a few moments, for the first time in three thousand millennia, he would not be alone. In a few moments, the radiation inside the mining ship would be at a safe enough level to let the last two humans out of stasis.

There was a hiss as the seal to the stasis booth released and the door to the unit swung open. Rimmer looked up as the door swung open with a slight groan. He stepped out into the corridor, and Holly's face appeared on the monitor across from the booths.

"Good morning, Arnold. It is now safe for you to emerge from stasis. Please report to the drive room for debriefing."

He gulped and made his way to the drive room, noticing two things. Firstly, the ship was totally silent, save for the sounds of the engines. The second thing was that there weren't even any other people around, and there were piles of what looked like powdered milk scattered everywhere. He entered the drive room, and the first thing he noticed was one solitary person sitting on one of the desks in a floral Hawaiian t-shirt.

"Lister? What are you doing here?" Rimmer said.

"Rimmer?" Lister said, looking up at Rimmer.

"Holly, what's going on? What happened? Where is everyone?" Rimmer asked, afraid he already knew the answer.

"They're all dead." Holly said monotonously.

"Who is?" Lister asked.

"How?" Rimmer asked simultaneously.

"The drive plate was inefficiently repaired. It released a lethal dose of Cadmium II radiation, killing the crew in seconds. Only you and Dave survived, because you were both in stasis." Holly explained. Rimmer's face froze in a shocked expression.

"How long were we in stasis for?" Lister asked before Rimmer could.

"Three million years."

"Three million years!?" Rimmer repeated. "Three million years away from Earth with _him_?" Rimmer pointed at Lister, who was staring at Holly, who nodded at Rimmer. "Oh, smeg..." Rimmer sat down at a desk and rubbed his temples. It was quiet for a while.

"Holly?" Lister broke the silence. "What's with all this white powder?" He dipped his middle finger into the pile nearest him, and tasted it. It had a bitter taste, and was very chalky.

"That," Holly said. "Is Navigation Officer Kristine Kochanski." Lister instantly spat out the powder, and wiped his tongue on his sleeve.

"That's _Kris?_" Lister asked. "Why didn't you mention that _before_ I ate it?" Lister sighed, and stared at the pile of powder morosely. It hadn't fully set in yet. _Everyone_ was dead. Everybody. Everyone except for him and Rimmer.

Rimmer.

He hadn't even thought about that one. He didn't even think of the fact that he was stuck out in deep space with Rimmer. He would go insane. Rimmer, who kept his underwear on coat hangers. Rimmer, who was so stingy that you needed a crowbar to open his coin purse. Rimmer, who had a collection of 20th century telegraph poles and cut out news clippings, which bore headlines such as _Arnie Does it Best_, just because the people they were about had the same name as him. Usually Lister would at least be able to escape Rimmer by going to get plastered with Petersen and the others, but now he didn't even have that escape.

This had to be singularly the worst thing that had ever happened to him, even worse than being abandoned under a pool table as a baby, worse than having to live in a luggage locker on Mimas. He sifted his hand through the Kochanski-powder and sighed.

Rimmer was walking down the corridor to the sleeping quarters. He was trying to spend as much time as possible on his own. He needed time to think. It still hadn't sunk in fully that him and Lister were the last humans alive. How ironic that the last two humans were a slobby space bum and a man who was thrown up on by most women he met. The species' future seemed hopeless. He had just turned a corner when he heard a noise. It was a clanging coming from an overhead ventilation pipe, followed by a voice. It was muffled, so Rimmer couldn't understand what it was saying, but it seemed to be singing something. He looked up at the vent and it was shaking slightly. It stopped for a minute, and then Rimmer heard a clanging behind him. He looked at the source of the noise, seeing a vent grille wobbling on the floor, when suddenly a pink-clad creature did a flying somersault out of the vent. It stood up, twirling and _aowwwww_ing down the corridor, until it saw Rimmer. It froze in its tracks.

"Better make myself look big!" it said, bearing its' teeth at Rimmer whilst raising its' arms menacingly above its' head. It worked. Rimmer raced off down the hallway towards the sleeping quarters where Lister was unpacking his possessions from vacuum storage.

"Lister!" He yelled, racing into the quarters.

"What's up with you?" Lister said, his head rising from his pile of curry-stained clothes to look at Rimmer. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"Follow me!" he squeaked, running the same direction he came from. Lister rolled his eyes and got up to follow him.

"It's somewhere around here," Rimmer said once Lister caught up.

"What is?" Lister questioned.

"This man in a pink suit! He just jumped out of the air duct and started twirling around."

"Rimmer, are you sure you're not having another one of your episodes again?"

"I'm positive!" He said, exasperated. They walked into the drive room, and the man was standing there, with a portable iron, pressing down on a crease in his seemingly immaculate suit. "See, I wasn't going crazy!" Rimmer whispered, and the man turned around to look at them.

"Holly, who is this?" Lister asked, and Holly's face appeared on the wall monitor.

"He's a cat."

"What do you mean "cat?"

"You know how humans evolved from apes, right? Well, he evolved from cats. His ancestors were cats. He's descended from cats. He is a cat."

"This man is a cat?" Rimmer said unbelievingly.

"That would be correct." Holly said.

Lister looked at the cat and smiled tentatively. "Well… Uh, hello… Cat?"

**A/N: A bit more happening in this chapter now, which is good! Anyways, please review, and I'll be posting chapter 3 soon hopefully! Ta!**

**Carly**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Red Dwarf no mine.**

**A/N: Well, here's chapter three, in all its short glory! Thank you to my reviewers, I will answer to your reviews at the end of this chapter. **

**Okay, I just wanted to get this up, even though I hated it. The characters seem a bit OOC, but I'll work on that. I do use some slight techy jargon, but not much. Tell me any mistakes I've made (if any). Anyways, enjoy even though it's total crap and it's about the same length as Rimmer's biking shorts.**

In the week after being released from stasis, Rimmer found life on the almost-deserted spacecraft, well, monotonous. The Cat, as was soon common knowledge, was vain and self absorbed, and spent most of his time preening and napping. He wasn't the best for a good conversation. Also, for some strange reason, he seemed to dislike Rimmer almost instantly, and Rimmer couldn't understand why. He had tried to get Cat to play a game of RISK, but he had declined in favor of doing his cuticles with an ice pick.

Lister walked into the sleeping quarters where Rimmer was staring out of the window into the abyss of space. He didn't even look when Lister entered the room, too engrossed in his thoughts to truly notice.

"Well, someone seems distracted." Lister said, sitting at the table and opening up a can of lager, spraying the foam all over. Rimmer looked at Lister for a moment, and then turned to stare back at the window. "I don't understand how you can just sit there and stare at the stars for that long. It's not like there's much out there."

"Well, there are stars." Rimmer said.

"Yeah, but to stare at the same little white dots for hours on end doesn't sound like too much fun, personally." Lister said, taking a swig from his lager. Rimmer was about to reply with a comeback when Holly's face appeared on the monitor behind them.

"What's happening, dudes?" He asked.

"Smeg all." Lister said, slurping from his lager again. A few moments of silence ticked by. "Did you come to say something?"

"Oh, right." Holly said. "Something's come up on the long-range scanners. Something big." Rimmer perked up, smiling.

"Aliens!" He said, standing up.

"You sure it's not a rock?" Lister asked, ignoring Rimmer. "You've already found three rocks in just the past week alone."

"No, it isn't a rock. At least, I don't think it is. Anyways, I'll tell you when something more comes." He said, then the screen went black.

"It's aliens, I can just tell!" Rimmer said.

"It's probably just a rock." Lister repeated.

"You never know. It could be an alien spacecraft abandoned for the past three million years."

"It's. A. Rock. They've been rocks for the past week. Three of them."

Holly came back onto the screen ten minutes later.

"Hey Hol. Find anything yet?" Lister asked.

"I have, actually." Holly said smugly.

"And?" Rimmer said.

"It's a ship." Holly said. "It's from Earth."

"Earth? Out this far?" Lister said.

"I guess so." Holly said. "That's all I can tell at the moment, until I can link up with their mainframe. Come to the drive room, we can sort it all out, see what it is."

Lister and Rimmer made their way to the drive room, and sat themselves in front of a monitor when they got there.

"I've logged onto their mainframe. It's from Earth, alright. Built in the late 23rd century, it was sent to test out the new demi-light speed technology. Crews of six or seven were sent out to try it out, but obviously it didn't make it back on the last trip."

"Is there anything onboard?" Lister asked.

"Not that I can tell. It seems safe enough." Holly replied. Lister stood up and made his way out of the drive room.

"Uh, Lister… where are you going?" Rimmer asked.

"To go check it out, of course. You coming?"

**A/N: Well, not bad I guess. Little bit of a cliffy, not much though. Now, time for replies.**

**Stef: I will continue to write this as long as I like it, which I particularly do. Glad you're intrigued! The next chapter should come soon, the plot bunnies are eating away at my brain but I'm just too tired to write anymore.**

**Kryten 2x4b 523p: Thank you for the happy birthday, and it makes me happy that you think I'm doing well. I'm normally horrible for posting fics and such because I normally don't finish them or hate them, but I've decided that I should just put them up no matter what. Kryten will be in the story soon (hopefully next couple chapters), so don't worry, he'll be here. About following the plot we already know, I most definitely will try my best to avoid copying it at any time. If I do, it'll only be a small bit. I agree in saying that the originally plotted ones are MUCH better, and I only started this out like that because then it was a kind of easierish way to start it. But from now on, I'll try my best to be original from the storyline in my plot.**

**Thanks for the reviews, both of you. They are muchly appreciated. Anyways, the rock bit in here was _inspired_ from the show (not copied too much :P). So chapter four should be up quickly. I have many ideas, it's just how to get them down on paper that's the problem. Anyways, this A/N is beginning to ramble on, so I'll leave it here. Please review, it makes me post faster!! Ta!**

**Carly**


	4. Chapter 4

**Holy smeg, is anyone still reading this?**

**It seems that I've finally gotten up off my lazy ass and wrote some of this story! It's been at least six months since I last updated, but here it finally is! Chapter 4! :p I got some really good inspiration to write this story, so I did! The inspiration came in two different parts: 1) The new Red Dwarf: Back to Earth episodes coming out, which got me into a super Red Dwarf-y mood, and 2) The fact that, in October, I get to go to England (all the way from here in Canada, no less) for Dimension Jump XV, where I will get to meet Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Robert Llewellyn, and Danny John-Jules, as well as any of the other actors who go to the con! So I thought that I just had to update just because of all this amazingness that's been going on. So, it seems a bit OOC to me, but oh well. Read and enjoy!**

**(Also, if you're going to DJ as well, contact me and tell me - I'd love to know anyone else who's going! :D)**

"Okay, we've got suits, torches, bazookoids, spare oxygen tanks, and a first-aid kit. We've also got a couple trays of chicken vindaloo, and a 6-pack of wicked-strength lager." Lister said, counting off everything that they'd gathered to bring to the derelict.

"What do you need the vindaloos and lager for?" Rimmer asked, his face scrunching into a questioning expression.

"You always gotta be ready for the worst." He replied, tenderly stacking his beloved curries into the bag crammed full of all their other supplies. Rimmer rolled his eyes.

"So, is there anything else we need, or do you have to make an emergency trip down to the cargo bays to bring along the whole supply of popadoms?" Rimmer asked.

"Just shut up and put this on, smart arse." Lister said, tossing a suit at Rimmer, who just barely caught it. Pulling them on, they made their way to the airlocks.

xxxxxxxx

The smell of mould and rot hung stagnant in the air, filling the nostrils of the two occupants of the vessel. The floor was soggy and felt as if it were about to give way at any moment. There were small patches of water to be found occasionally, most likely leaks from a flood on the floor above, and the walls were slimy and damp. Most of the electricity seemed to be out, but the odd control panel was still on, blinking away about its own business.

"Keep an eye out for any supplies that could come in handy. Anything that we can carry back on our own we'll grab. Anything else, we can come back for later if we absolutely need it. Okay?" Lister said. Rimmer nodded and made his way towards the control room. He shone his light on the panels, seeing if there was anything interesting on the displays. A few of them were still in use, and he leaned close to them to see the readouts. He quickly scanned them, intending to be on his way soon, but the stats on one of the monitors caught his attention. It read:

POWER MANAGEMENT

ENGINES: 0% OF AVAILABLE ENGINE POWER IN USE

MONITORS: 45% OF AVAILABLE MONITOR POWER IN USE

AIR CONDITIONING: 0% OF AVAILABLE A/C POWER IN USE

O/G UNIT: 99.9% OF AVAILABLE O/G UNIT POWER IN USE

STASIS BOOTHS: 100% OF AVAILABLE STASIS BOOTH POWER IN USE

Rimmer's eyes stayed glued to the last one on the list. His mind was blank for a second. Then it kicked back into gear, and processed exactly what he was seeing. If what that screen was saying was what he thought it was saying, then that meant there were survivors on the ship. "Lister! Lister, come here quickly!" Rimmer shouted, waiting for the Scouser to get to the control room. He ran in through the door and stood beside Rimmer.

"What? What's going on?" Lister asked, panting slightly.

"Look at this." Rimmer said calmly, pointing at the screen. Lister read the readouts, and looked back up at Rimmer.

"So? What's that got to do with anything?" Lister asked.

"Don't you get it? The stasis booths are one of the few things that's actually getting power. That means that… there's probably someone in there."

Suddenly, it dawned on Lister. His eyes and his mouth opened wide in shock. "Seriously?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Rimmer neared the stasis room, Lister following closely behind, his heart began to pound. What if there was someone in there? What if it turned out to be some murderous slimy monster with huge teeth and a penchant for eating human flesh? Or worse, what if whoever it was didn't like him? He knew that was a definite possibility. How many people had he come across in his life that had actually truly enjoyed being in his company, excluding Inflatable Ingrid? Zero. This statistic made him very wary of trying to meet new people. But… what if, on the slight chance that whoever this person was didn't instantly detest him, they actually became friends? It was a concept that Rimmer had never contemplated.

At that moment, he was brought out of his thoughts as they came up to a row of doors. Seven of them ran the length of the wall, each a sturdy metal door with a huge glass window cut into it.

"You see anyone yet?" Lister asked. Rimmer shook his head, and took a step forwards. The first door he saw was empty, as were the second and fourth ones. The third, fifth and sixth ones were broken. That left the last one, the seventh one. Taking a deep breath, Rimmer stepped forwards. Nothing. He let out a disappointed sigh, running a hand through his hair. Then he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. He leaned in closer, running his fingers down the length of the rubber sealant, from the top to the bottom. He sighed again, standing up and crossing his arms. He was just about to talk, when something startled him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" A voice shouted, and before he knew it, Rimmer was being attacked from behind. A figure jumped up on his back, knocking the wind out of him. Then an arm was hastily wrapped around his neck and began tightening. Rimmer gasped, a choking sound escaping his throat. He began to freak out as he gasped for air, unable to take a proper breath. He grabbed hold of the arm held tight around his neck and tried to pull it off, but whoever it was had too strong of a grip on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lister run up to try and restrain the attacker, only to see him receive a swift kick in the chest, stumbling backwards and falling down.

_Oh smeg, I'm going to die, aren't I? _Rimmer thought, panicking as the edges of his vision started to go black. He began to feel extremely warm, then extremely cold, the feeling spreading to every bit of his body. He started to feel slightly confused about what was going on, and he tried his hardest to keep a grip on reality. With his last amount of strength, he tried, feebly, to throw off his attacker. Once more, the person was too strong. Finally giving up, he fell to his knees in defeat, slumping over onto his side. He heard Lister yelling 'stop', and that was all he heard before he blacked out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, this is starting to look good - I've actually posted the next chapter fairly close to when I said I'd post it. I've been SO busy recently, what with play practices ever Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, band practices on Tuesday and Thursday, and then having to also fit in an extra play practice for just the leads on either a Tuesday or Thurdsay and having to miss one band practice, so I haven't had too much time to write. It's starting to wear me out, but I love it all. Also, I've finally figured out how to write stuff on Word from my cell phone, so that's given me more time to be able to write. Also, I got my hair dyed yesterday, and while I was sitting in the chair waiting for the bleach to set in (I was bleaching blonde streaks in my (dyed) red hair) I was writing some of this chapter on my cell phone. :P (If anyone wants to see my hair, I'm changing my avatar to it soon :P) Anyways, here it is - chapter five!**

Almost instantaneously, or so it felt, Rimmer opened his eyes. He put a hand on his head, feeling where he had hit it on the floor.

"Hey, wake up!" A voice said, and he felt a couple light slaps on his cheek. He looked up, and saw a younger woman kneeling above him.

"Uh, hello?" Rimmer said, leaning slightly on his arms.

"Hey, you alright?" She asked, her voice calm and soothing. He nodded, starting to sit up. Instead, he was pushed back down by small yet forceful hands. "Don't sit up yet. Your blood pressure is still a little low."

"What?"

"Blood pressure. I've had enough experience with blacking out to know that your blood pressure drops. Just wait a few minutes and you'll be good to go. Sorry about before, by the way. I didn't know what you were doing on the ship, and I got a little defensive."

"That's okay." He said. There was an awkward silence, and Rimmer stared at the girl, taking in her appearance. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, with dark brown-almost-black hair and striking pale blue eyes, a complete contrast to her dark hair. She had a pale complexion with freckles, almost as if she were a redhead. She was slender, but not frail – in fact, she seemed to be quite well built. Her legs were long, muscular yet not grossly so.

"My name's Adelaide, by the way." She said, extending a hand for him to shake.

"Arnold. Arnold Rimmer." He said, grabbing her hand and shaking it.

"You're probably okay to sit up now." She said, pulling him up by his hand so he was sitting upright. The force of her pull almost caused Rimmer to wobble and fall to the side. A small giggle escaped her lips, and she helped him regain his balance. She moved over to lean against a wall behind them, motioning for Rimmer to follow.

"So where's Lister?"

"Lister? Oh, do you mean the man with the dreadlocks? He went to go look for supplies while you were unconscious. I told him I'd look after you while he was gone. For some reason, he seemed a little surprised that I'd want to do that."

"Sounds about right."

Rimmer looked at Adelaide from the corner of his eye. She looked straight ahead, wrapped up in her own thoughts.

Leaning his head against the wall, Rimmer closed his eyes. What the smegging hell was happening? He actually met someone that didn't have a wave of nausea wash over them when they met him? And it was a girl! Hell must have frozen over.

He never expected something like this to happen to him - he had just come to accept the fact that most people in the cosmos hated him, just because he was Arnold Rimmer. Who _could_ like him? He had never even contemplated the fact that someone, somewhere, might actually like him.

It was probably wishful thinking - she had just met him, after all. She was probably just being polite. Once she got to know him, she'd probably treat him like everyone else did.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, unsure of what else to talk about, until the sound of footsteps reached their ears.

"Okay, I've gathered up anything valuable, all we've gotta do is load it onto the ship." Lister said, dusting off his hands as he walked up to where Rimmer and Adelaide were sitting. "Oh, you're awake. Finally." He said, adressing Rimmer. "You alright to carry some supplies?"

Rimmer nodded, and stood up, getting a head rush and swaying for a moment. He steadied himself, and followed the others out of the room.

xxxxxxxx

"What the smeg is in here?" Rimmer asked, holding the end of an extremely heavy grey box. They had finished carting everything onto Red Dwarf, and were now on the last item.

"Nothin'..." Lister said from across the box.

"What?" Rimmer asked, slightly concerned.

"I said it's nothin'."

"Lister, if you don't tell me now-"

"Okay, okay! I found a busted up mechanoid in one of the storage closets. I thought that, if I fixed 'im up, he might be useful."

"Lister, what do we need a mechanoid for?"

"I dunno."

"Then why'd you bring it?"

"I felt bad for it, okay? I mean, it shouldn't have to spend eternity rusting away on some shelf."

"Lister, it's a mechanoid. There's nothing to feel bad _for_."

"Hey, you guys need any help?" Adelaide asked, popping her head around the corner ahead of them.

"No, we're fine." Lister said. "You can just wait on Red Dwarf for us. We won't be too long."

"No, let me give you a hand." She insisted, jogging over to them. She grabbed hold of the edge of the box and lifted, almost lifting it out of the guys' hands. "Where to?"

"Erm, just onto the ship." Lister said, startled by her strength.

They brought the box onto the ship and brought it into the sleeping quarters. Leaning against it, Adelaide sighed.

"Well, what a day." She said, smiling tiredly. "Hey, you guys don't mind if I go lay down for a bit, do you?"

"Not at all." Rimmer said, sounding quite business-like. All it did was make him sound like a complete smeghead. "Just let me show you to your quarters."

Silently, they walked together down the corridor. Finally, Rimmer broke the silence.

"So, how long were you on that ship for?"

"Well," She said, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. "I joined up on Calypso when I was 23, and I worked some odd jobs on a couple ships. Then, three years later, they were looking for a small group of people to test out this new ship. I signed up, thinking it would be an adventure. Far as I can tell, it definitely was. About four days into the trip, a pipe ruptured and started seeping carbon monoxide into the air. In a matter of weeks, the whole crew died. Except for me. I was in stasis because I had a flu and and I didn't want to pass it on to the rest of the crew."

"Wait… if you were in stasis the whole time, how do you know how the crew died?"

"Black box recordings. Before you guys came, I was checking the ship's logs to see if I could find out what the hell had happened. Apparently, the computer had also set the stasis booth to let me out when a ship passed nearby."

"And did the computer tell you… how long you were in stasis for?"

"No, but Lister filled me in when you were unconscious." She said, smiling slightly. "To be completely honest, the fact that we're three million years into the future isn't that big of a deal for me. I had nothing back where I was, so it's not like I lost much."

They stopped in front of a sliding door, looking at each other. "Well, here's your quarters." Rimmer said uncomfortably.

"Thanks." She said, smiling. She hit the sensor beside the door, and it slid open. As Rimmer began walking away, he heard a small call.

"Uh, Rimmer?"

He turned around. Adelaide was peeking out of the doorway at him.

"Yes?"

"I forgot to say thanks, y'know, for saving me and all. I mean, if it weren't for you and Lister, I'd still be stuck on that ship. So thank you."

"Oh, well. You're welcome." Rimmer said, rocking back and forth on his heels. Adelaide giggled slightly, and walked back into the sleeping quarters, the door sliding behind her. Rimmer stared at the spot where she had disappeared, and after a few moments, finally walked away.

**You people have no idea how much I hate most of this chapter. I hate how OOC it sounds. I hate how awfully I've edited it. I hate the explanation of how she got on the ship (Although I love that I actually researched moons so I could name an actual moon, not make up a lamety lame one). I hate most of it. But oh well. It could be MUCH worse. Anyways, time to answer some reviews! :D**

**Quinevere Jane: Thank you, I'm very glad you like it. Also, I've taken your advice and kept up with the writing (whilst being happy), so I hope this chapter was good! :D**

**Kryten2x4b523p: Lol, you have no idea how much I had to beg and plead for my mom to actually even consider it and try to be able to make it. I almost died when she told me we'd be able to! And I will definitely try and tell Robert that you say hi! Did you know he has a Twitter and a Youtube account? Both are bobbyllew, if you're interested. Now, on to the actual writing-yness part. Glad you like how it's going so far, and yes, cliffhangers are my favourite things to write. Originally, chapter four and this new chapter would have been one chapter, but I though 1) It'd be too long, and 2) If you've got the chance to add in a cliffhanger, why not go for it? :P Secretly, we all love it when a chapter ends on a cliffhanger. We all love to hate them, I guess you could say. :P**

**Padme4000: Well, I'm glad there are a couple people out there reading it! :P I thought, since it had been at least 6 months since I'd updated, that no one would still be here to read it :P Hope this new chapter was an adequate update, and hopefully it wasn't so cringe-inducingly horrible that it scared you away. Hehe.**

**Max Evelyn: Glad you like it so far and that you want to voluntarily read more, and I hope you like the rest of it!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for not getting this up earlier, but I've been so busy again. Dress rehearsals every day for the past 3 days (and another tomorrow) have really made it hard to write. But here it is! Hope it's okay! Also, sorry if any of it doesn't fit – I've written and re-written and edited this so many times that I don't know if it all fits together properly. If anything doesn't make sense, please tell me! :D**

Rimmer entered the sleeping quarters, a slight smile on his face. He flopped down onto his bunk and put a hand behind his head.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Lister said from his spot at the grey table.

"That girl we saved, Adelaide. She's some girl, isn't she?"

"Yeah."

"She's beautiful, and from what I can tell she's brilliant."

"Yeah. And she's totally out of your league."

Rimmer sat up. "What? How do you know that?"

"Well, she doesn't have any disfiguring ailments, so that's the first hint."

"And you think she'd go for you then?"

"Who wouldn't?" Lister said smugly.

"Too many to count." Rimmer said, pausing. "But how do you know for sure that she wouldn't go for me? Maybe she's not into your type."

"Rimmer, it's just common sense. She'd probably rather sleep with a cactus then go out with you."

Rimmer laid back down on his bunk, staring at the roof while Lister lit a cigarette. What if Lister was right? Was he really that undateable? _Yes_, Rimmer thought. _You most certainly are._ He sighed, and closed his eyes, eventually falling into a restless sleep.

xxxxxxxxx

"Good morning, miss."

A tired groan could be heard from the table, where a figure sat with their head planted on the flat surface, their hair forming a sort of halo around their head.

_Wait a second,_ they thought, and lifted their head off the table, unsure of what was talking to them. She looked around herself, and saw the head of a middle aged balding man floating in the middle of a screen where a mirror had previously been.

"Uh… who are you?" She asked somewhat sleepily.

"I am Holly, the ship's computer."

She shifted in her seat to face the computer. "I'm Adelaide." Holly looked at her with a confused look on his face. "From the derelict."

"Oh, right. Forgot about that."

Adelaide smirked. What a peculiar computer. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Just under 9 hours."

"Seriously? What time is it now?"

"9:30 am."

"Ugh, why the hell did I wake up then?" She said, standing up and staggering over to the bunks, where she had stuffed a large bag full of her clothing and possessions in the empty bunk. She dug around in the bag, looking for something to wear. She pulled out a shirt and some pants, and walked out of the quarters, draping a towel over her arm as she left.

xxxxxxxxx

Lister hopped down from his bunk and stretched, his shirt lifting up to expose half of his stomach. He scratched it, tugged his shirt down, and went to the vending machine in the hall.

"Curry and a beer milkshake."

A tray of steaming food and a glass of a thick brownish liquid lowered down from the dispensing unit. "Enjoy your meal."

Lister smiled, scooping his meal up and bringing it back to the sleeping quarters, setting it down on the table and digging in.

"Good morning, Dave." Holly's voice came from the speakers.

"Mornin', Hol." Lister said with a mouthful of curry. "What's up?"

"Not much, just a bit bored. Oh, and we're going to hit lightspeed soon. Just thought I'd warn you."

"Cheers, Hol."

xxxxxxxxx

The water streamed in a jet out of the shower head, washing its way over Adelaide's body. She leaned her head back slightly, enjoying the feeling of the hot water on her skin. Steam filled the room, and fogged up the mirror.

_This is relaxing. _Adelaide thought, squeezing a generous amount of shampoo into her palm and lathering it into her hair. Just as she was about to rinse it out, a loud noise, accompanied by the ship jolting, echoed through the ship. Adelaide slipped, fell backwards, and landed on the floor of the shower, hitting her head against the wall.

"Ouch…" She said to herself, rubbing the back of her head and standing up. "What the hell just happened?" She shook her head, and after finding no visible damage, continued with her shower.

xxxxxxxxx

"Holly, what the smeg just happened?" Lister said, halfway off his chair.

"We broke the light barrier early. We are now going faster than the speed of light."

"Ah." Lister said, climbing back onto the chair. Finishing the last bite of his curry and downing the rest of his milkshake, he hauled himself back up onto his bunk and fell asleep.

xxxxxxxxx

Wrapping a towel around herself, Adelaide stepped out of the stall and stood in front of the mirror, her hair dripping onto the floor. She grabbed her brush from the shelf where she had left it, and ran it through her hair, trying to tame it.

She finally looked into the mirror, and did a double take. Looking back at her was a girl holding a blow dryer, drying her hair. Adelaide dropped her brush, startled. It was her in the mirror. She ran a hand up either side of the mirror, and found nothing out of place.

"This cannot be normal…" She said, watching as the her in the mirror put down the blow dryer and started applying makeup. Trying to ignore what was happening, Adelaide picked up her brush from where it had landed in the sink, and started brushing. Then, as if someone had turned off a TV, the her in the mirror faded away, her real reflection taking its place. Adelaide shook her head, finishing up in the bathroom. She brushed her teeth, got dressed, blow dried her hair, and did her makeup. Then, she left the showers and went back to her quarters.

xxxxxxxxx

"Hey." Lister said as Adelaide walked into the room. She seemed dazed, and was pale. She flopped down on the chair beside Lister, her back stiff and straight as a rod, and stared straight ahead. "You alright? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"Huh..." She said, barely audible, her eyes glazed over. Finally, recognition flitted across her face. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head slightly, looking at Lister. "What did you say?"

"I said you look like you've just seen a ghost. Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." She said, staring at a dot on the opposite wall.

"You sure? You seem a little pale."

"Yeah, just… yeah."

Lister looked at her, and couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was, no matter how frazzled she looked. "What happened?"

"Oh, well, I was taking a shower, and suddenly the ship jolted, and when I got out, my reflection in the mirror wasn't doing the same thing I was."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was brushing my hair, but my reflection wasn't. It was really weird."

"Maybe it's got something to do with lightspeed. Hol,"

"Yeah?" Holly said, appearing on the screen.

"What's going on? With the mirrors?"

"Oh, that. You're seeing future echoes. Didn't I explain this to you?"

"What are future echoes?" Adelaide asked.

"Well, we're travelling faster than LS, right?"

"What's LS?" Lister asked.

"Lightspeed." Holly explained. "So, consequently, you're catching up with things you're about to do before you've actually done them."

"So we're seeing bits of the future." Adelaide said.

"Yes." Holly replied.

"That explains a lot." Adelaide said, relaxing.

"At least we'll know what the smeg's happening next time." Lister said as Holly's face faded off of the screen.

"Yeah."

xxxxxxxxx

Rimmer paced up and down the hallway, biting his lip and generally being nervous. An image of a face, the face that was causing him to be nervous in the first place, flitted through his mind.

As he had slept, he had dreamed. In his dream, he was sitting alone in a room, with only a couple candles flickering softly and a large bed with fluffy pillows, which was situated in the middle of the room. At first he didn't know why he was there, so he just sat there and looked around. Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Spinning his head around, he saw the silhouette of a slender woman walking up to him, wearing only a thin loose shirt, see-through enough that he could see her body underneath it.

"Hello, Arnold." Adelaide said, finally coming into the light. She walked up to him, smiling. Rimmer looked around himself, making sure there wasn't anyone else in the room she could be talking to. There wasn't. She grabbed hold of his hands, pulling him up to his feet, and looked up at him. He was quite a bit taller than she was, and he had to look down to see her.

"Hello." He replied shakily. She smirked. Pulling him by his hand, she led him over to the bed, sitting down on the edge. He followed her lead, and sat beside her. Her hand was still holding his, and it was warm and soft. He tightened his grip on it.

He watched her as she leaned in close, her eyes slowly closing, her lips inches away from his own...

That was when he had woken up. Disoriented, it had taken him a moment to realise that it had only been a dream.

At first he had been confused - why had he had a dream like that about someone he had just met? Then he thought harder... he _had _been a little nervous around her, acting a little bit strange. It was perfectly natural, he thought - she was the only female on board, and most likely the last female anywhere, so obviously he'd be feeling something. It didn't mean anything.

Did it?

The more he thought about it, the more weird it felt. He eventually just brushed it off, explaining it away saying that it was just the fact that she had shown him something compassion, instead of spitting on his feet.

Still, he couldn't stem the nervousness that coursed through his body as he paced outside her door, making it hard for him to think properly.

All he was there to do was ask her how she was doing, make sure she was settling in alright, and nothing more. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to actually go talk to her.

_What the smeg is wrong with you?_ He thought to himself, running a hand down his face. _What's so hard?_

He sighed, walked over to the door of her room, and brought his hand up, knocking softly. _Just get on with it._

The door slid open, and Adelaide stood in the doorway, clothed in white short shorts and a light blue t-shirt. "Hello!" She said brightly, smiling at Rimmer.

"Uh, hello." He said. Why was he so nervous? "I take it everything is alright?"

"Yeah, it's great. Here, come in."

"Oh, no, I shouldn't…"

"Come in." She said, rolling her eyes.

Rimmer followed her into her sleeping quarters, which already had a sort of lived-in feel to it. "Here, sit." She said, pulling out a chair for him and sitting in the one across from it.

"So, how are you settling in?" Rimmer asked.

"Pretty well. This isn't much different than what I've been doing for the past three years, anyways, so it's not that much of a drastic change."

"What was it that you did, again?"

"Oh, I would spend a few months on one ship doing menial tasks - janitorial duties, or something along those lines. Then, once I had spent a couple months on that ship, I'd transfer to a different ship and do the same thing. I could have done so much more, but I was happy with where I was for the time being. And, I got to meet tons of new people."

Rimmer perked up. He had thought for sure that she would have outranked him.

"What about you?" She asked, leaning her forearms on the table.

"Well, there's not much to say. I worked here for fifteen years and never made it past the rank of Second Technician." He replied, looking down at his hands.

"Well, that's not awful! It pays the bills, doesn't it?"

"Well, yes, but..." He said, pausing. "My entire life, all I ever wanted was to be successful. Become an officer. But… it never seemed to work for me. Nothing ever did. I was destined to fail from the beginning. I let my parents down. I let everyone down."

He looked back up and looked at Adelaide. Her large bright blue eyes were staring at him sadly, sympathy evident on her face.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have… I'll just go now." Rimmer said, standing up.

"No, stay." Adelaide said, grabbing onto his hand and pulling him back down. "Keep talking. Tell me about yourself. If you want to, that is."

Rimmer sat on the chair, unsure of what he should tell her. _I've already said too much. Now she'll know how vulnerable I am…_

But he took one look at her face and instantly relaxed. Her face was understanding, caring, and sympathetic. There was something about her that he couldn't explain. He suddenly wanted to tell her everything, to have someone else know what he had gone through. He exhaled, blowing away any doubts he'd previously had.

"What do you want to know?"

"Well, where you come from, your childhood - anything."

"Well, for any of this to make sense, you have to understand my parents..."

**And there ends the massively long chapter six. Just under seven pages on Microsoft Word, this chapter started out promisingly and was going to be a reasonable length, but then I got carried away, it got out of hand... one thing led to another and this was the result. Surprisingly, I don't mind most of this chapter. It was actually pretty fun to write as well :D Anyways, got some reviews to reply to! :D (Those of you that I've actually PM'd already, I won't reply on here)**

**Padme4000: Yeah, I guess you're right. Him around women is a little bit different than him around other people. So the OOC-ness is expected :P**

**Kryten2x4b523p: Hehe, yes, eventually Kryten will be brought in. Not sure how soon, but before chapter 10 most likely. Glad you like the story so much, and I hope you keep reading it! :D**

**What sort of scanned pic did you mean, and I would try. I've got like, 6 people asking for autographs and stuff from them when I go there, so I'll have to see :P**

**Laura xx (Previously Quinevere :P): It did? Really? Wow, I thought it sounded so out of place. Hehe, guess not then! And yes, I am sooo busy. But as I said, I love it. :D**

**Psychobikerjunkiewhore: Yay, another reader!!! Hehe, yes, I'm going to DJ. It's gonna be sooo fun! You should go anyways – don't care about what other people say or think about it! So many people have said I'm such a nerd for going all the way over to England from here in Canada for a convention, but I don't care. It's gonna be so fun, and so worth it! Cool that you've met them already, though! :D**

**Daydreaming-with-ink: Already replied, but thanking you again for reviewing, and sorry that you most likely can't go to DJ ******

**Cazflibs: You gave me two reviews – one on the story, and one in my PMs. I'll answer both here, if that's okay! The idea for this (and for Rimmer actually listening to his past self) came from what people think is the reason Rimmer was alive at the end of Timeslides. So it was kind of… inspired by them :P**

**Now, for the PM'd review. Yes, early Rimmer was annoying as hell, and I'll try to stick to that as much as I can. But of course, Rimmer will change as the story goes on – characters have to do that, right? And early Lister won't be **_**too**_** hard to write, I don't think. I feel like I'm getting better at it, so I'm getting more confident as I go along. **

**I'm glad you think I'm doing a good job – technically, this isn't my first story (I started one before this, Childhood of a Smeghead), but it's my first multi-chapter one. I don't believe that your writing was horrible, I've read your other stuff and it's really good! And no, you weren't rambling. If anyone's rambling, it's me. :P**

**Well, I think I'll shut up now! Working on chapter 7 as we speak, so look out for that soon! :D**

**Carly**


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay, I'd just like to say this before I get any farther on in the story – I have this entire thing plotted out in my head (I have had this planned out since about chapter three), so any resemblance to other works of fanfiction, on here or anywhere else, is purely coincidental. *Sounds like something at the end of a movie or beginning of a book***

**Ahem… well, I am really, really sorry for not posting this sooner. For some reason, this chapter has been excruciatingly hard to write, and I went through numerous versions of it, before settling with this one. Not really much action in it, mind you, but there's a bit of explaining of Adelaide's past. I had to get this out of the way, though – after this, I actually do know what's going to happen, so it will be done quicker (hopefully – no guarantees though :P)**

**Anyways, please ignore any OOC-ness – I've tried to keep it semi-not-OOC, but I can never tell if my own writing is in character or not. Plus, I've done so many re-writes that I can't even remember exactly what I've written. But please, read and enjoy (if you can :P)**

**(Also, just to show how long it has been since I updated anything - all the documents that were in my document manager are no longer there. Wow, I suck at updating.)**

If Rimmer were to look back on his life and try to find all the good things that had happened to him, he'd be able to count them off on one hand. Life had been hard on him – he'd never gotten the breaks he wanted, and the whole world had seemed to turn its back on him. And he had never told a soul about most of his inner demons, the ones that gave him nightmares regularly.

Until now.

At first he had been somewhat reluctant – he had always been a bit unwilling to talk about the harshest parts of his adolescence. But, as he talked, and as she listened, he started to open up more, becoming more comfortable and talking to her as if he had known her for years.

"… Wait a second. He bought a _what?_" Adelaide had asked, horror and shock on her face.

"A traction machine." Rimmer had replied with a humourless smile on his face. "So he could stretch us."

"You serious?"

"Could I have made that up?"

Adelaide opened her mouth, then shook her head. "No, I guess not."

"He'd measure us every morning," Rimmer continued. "And if we hadn't grown, it was back on the rack for us."

Rimmer had kept on telling his stories, of how he was beaten by his father for bad grades or a dirty uniform, of his many failures with the opposite sex, and how he had stayed on the bottom rung career-wise for his entire adult life. Then, as the night wore on, he had started to talk about the deeper things, things that haunted his mind and prevented him from ever being happy. All his neuroses, his self loathing, every one of his flaws were laid out for her to see, showing her exactly why he was the person he was. He spilled everything, leaving nothing out, still not one hundred percent sure why. And she listened. She listened intently, and not just because she had to, but because she wanted to. On several occasions, the recall of memories had become too much for him, and he had broken down, crying. Adelaide had proceeded to comfort him, either by holding him while he sobbed, or by talking to him, trying to help soothe his demons away.

Two hours passed, then three, then five, and eventually, eight hours later, Rimmer was done, a weight off his chest that had been there for far too long. He coughed, wiping tears off his puffy red face, and looked up at Adelaide. They had moved their discussion to the bunks, which were far more comfortable than the stiff metal chairs, and she sat there, one leg hanging off the side of the bed, the other folded underneath her, her hands resting on her calf.

"Look, what I told you tonight… I'd appreciate it if it didn't go anywhere." He said, slightly worried that he'd be betrayed by her.

"I promise. My lips are sealed. Nothing leaves this room without your permission."

He nodded, unsure of what to say now. It was as if he had been in a trance for the past eight hours, his need for a shoulder to cry on finally overcoming anything and everything else and making him share things that, under different circumstances, he wouldn't have even dared to divulge. And now he felt drained, exhausted, and completely embarrassed that he had let his guard down like that.

"Rimmer?"

Adelaide's voice, although quiet, rang clearly through the room, yanking Rimmer out of his thoughts. He looked up.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

He shook his head, waiting for her to continue.

"Well…" She said, biting her lip. "From what you've told me, about the traction machine and the mealtime revision… I've come to the conclusion that you didn't join the Space Corps because _you_ wanted to, but because your _parents_ wanted you to. Am I right in thinking that?"

Rimmer stared at her for a second. Had she really asked him that? Of course he had joined because he wanted to! It wasn't because his parents had drilled it into his head from day one that unless he was an officer in the Space Corps, he was nothing, or because every person in his family had been expecting him to be in the Space Corps… was it?

Come to think of it, he had never really thought about it that much. All he knew was that he wanted to be an officer. But why?

"Of course I wanted to." Rimmer answered, more to convince himself that was true, instead of Adelaide.

They were silent for a minute, each thinking.

"I, for one, never joined the Space Corps because it was my life's ambition." She said, breaking the silence. "I only really joined because I needed some cash and it seemed like an easy place to get hired."

"Why the Space Corps? There are hundreds of easy jobs out there that are much easier and far less dangerous."

"Well, there were a few reasons. They were always looking for new people, so I wouldn't have to wait for months on end to get a reply saying I'd been rejected for the job, but thanks for applying. The money was really good, and it's not like I'd be doing that difficult of a job – I was just doing janitorial work. And… well, this is going to sound really stupid… but I always wanted to explore. To be able to see new places, places I'd never been before. And this was a job that would allow me to do that, to an extent. Even if I hated the work I was doing, at least I'd have a view. As a child, I never really got to do that – travel places and such. So as an adult, I made the most of it, hardly ever staying in one place for more than a couple months."

"Where did you go?" Rimmer said without thinking, curious.

"Well, lots of places - Triton, Ganymede, Venus, Io, Titan, Jupiter – I even stayed for a bit on Mimas. Dirty little moon, tons of bliss dealers and brothels and all that junk." She said. At that, Rimmer blushed, remembering his little excursion in the hopper where he had first met Lister whilst pretending to be a high-ranking officer, and how he had almost had his privates violently ripped off by a robotic hooker. Thankfully, Adelaide didn't notice.

"I started my travels when I was twenty, and by the time I was twenty-two, I had lived on 14 different moons and 6 different planets. I was left with a ton of memories, many new friends, and about three cents to my name. So, I packed all my junk up and moved back in with my father."

"Why not with your mother?"

Adelaide's eyebrows shot up, and her eyes looked down at her hands.

"Well… because she's dead. Died when I was born."

Rimmer's face paled. "Oh, God… I… I'm sorry, I didn't know… I shouldn't have asked…"

"Ehhh, don't worry about it. You said it yourself – you didn't know. It's not like you meant anything by it." She said.

"How did she die?" Rimmer asked hesitantly after a few moments of contemplation.

"Obstetrical hemorrhaging. . Internal bleeding. Apparently, my father said it's a fairly common cause of death at childbirth.

"He didn't blame you?" Rimmer said, momentarily thinking back to his adolescent years, being blamed for many things that weren't even his fault.

"I don't think he did. I mean, he never outright said it to me. But sometimes, I wondered if… if he would have rather had her live than me."

"I'm sure he didn't…"

"He might not have," Adelaide interrupted. "But I could always tell that he missed mum terribly. It didn't help any that I was almost a carbon copy of her – looks, mannerisms, everything. I was just like her, he'd tell me. It always made me feel awful, when he'd mention it. As if he were expecting me to just… change my looks and _not_ look like her, or change my personality so I wasn't a constant reminder of what he could have had…" She said, sounding angrier as she carried on.

Rimmer stared at the woman in front of him, her eyes staring down at her knees, and instead saw a small child that had always been compared to someone else, expectations for her already set high, but never being seen for who she really was.

She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand, and her eyes rolled over to the clock beside her bed. "Whoa, where'd the time go – it's already five in the morning."

Rimmer followed her stare, reading the time on the clock that reflected red against the table – 5.17 am.

He saw Adelaide stretch out of the corner of his eye, her arms extended above her head with her fingers linked. She flopped down on her back, closing her eyes and sighing.

"I'm just going to close my eyes for a few minutes, mkay? Then we'll keep talking. If I fall asleep, wake me up in 10 minutes…" She said, trailing off.

Rimmer nodded, even though she couldn't see it, and laid down on the bed as well, his head resting up by the wall uncomfortably and his legs hanging off the edge and resting on the floor, about three feet away from Adelaide. Involuntarily, his eyelids began to droop, and he kept shaking himself awake, as one does when they don't want to fall asleep. But eventually, he lost the battle, his eyes remaining shut for the rest of the night.

**Please, please, please review! Not to sound demanding or needy or anything, but I'd really like to know what you readers all think of this chapter – Good, bad, or excruciatingly horrific. So please, take the time to tell me what you think! **

**Carly**

**(PS: Sorry if any of the AN sounds rambly or doesn't make sense – it's 5 in the morning and I really should be getting to bed, before I start making even less sense. :P)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well… I am so sorry to all of those who are reading this story and have to deal with me constantly never finishing a chapter when I say I will! I just have a bad habit of doing so! Anyways, after all these long months, I have finally finished this chapter. It isn't as long as I'd like it to be, not nearly as long, but it's as good as it's going to get for now! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review when you're done reading it – reviews will make me go faster, I promise!**

**Also, I'd like to thank two people who were very important in the completion of this chapter - Alex R. Collins, who, for the past few months, has sat on MSN with me while I made him read every re-write and every new bit of the story that I had written, for practically beta-ing for me, and for listening to me as I relentlessly probed his mind for ideas for lines in the story, and for any ideas that would work. Also, for reassuring me that what I was writing was much better than my writer's blocked mind thought it was. And I would like to thank cazflibs, for reading over the chapter when I sent it to her, for also beta-ing for me, and supplying two of the best lines in this story, lines that, had it not have been for her, would still be sitting in my Word document, with a (finish sentence later) insert taking their place. Also, for just putting up with my constant worries about the chapter. For that, I will be eternally grateful to both of you. :)**

**And now, on with the chapter!**

The soft hum of the engines echoed throughout the mining vessel, the only sound in the sleepy ship. The noises reached the ears of the man sleeping in the bunk, although he didn't even register them. His nose twitched twice before he muttered something incoherent in his sleep, repositioning his head on his pillow. He was curled up in the fetal position, looking like an oversized, lanky baby.

Then, with a sudden, jerky motion, he sat up, his eyes half open, not quite awake yet. They darted rapidly from side to side, trying to figure out where he was. These weren't his quarters, he decided, two things having given it away; first of all, his swimming certificates were absent from their regular spots on the wall. Second of all, Lister's late-night lager wasn't spilled all over the floor in traditional fashion, which was a dead giveaway. Rimmer raised his arms above his head, yawning. Lowering them, he looked around the room once more, taking in his surroundings. Through his sleepy eyes, he saw a duffel bag on the floor full of what seemed to be women's clothing, a towel hanging from a pipe, and a pile of blankets on the bed beside him.

Scratch that. A pile of _moving_ blankets on the bed beside him. Rimmer recoiled, eyes wide. An arm peeked out from under the covers, accompanied by another. It was then followed by a head, its long brown hair making a curtain on either side of the person's face.

Oh. _Riiight. _

He watched as Adelaide stretched, curling back upon the bed. He jumped up, standing beside the bunk, unsure of what to do. Stay there and talk to her when she woke up, potentially making a fool of himself, or run out of the room like a coward?

He chose the latter.

* * *

In the sleeping quarters, Lister sat with a giant grey box at his feet, two mechanoid arm pieces in his hands, and a screwdriver. He took a screw from between his lips, started putting the two pieces together, and replaced the screw with a cigarette from his ear. Beside him sat a complete leg, another arm, and the mech's head.

As Lister took another drag from his cigarette, some movement from the doorway caught his attention.

"Rimmer, man, where the hell've ya been?" Lister said as Rimmer strode through the door, stopping by the table.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, I dunno, I just found it strange that you weren't back here to sleep. You always sleep in here, no matter what. Remember that time when I accidentally made the place smell like overdone chili eggs?"

Rimmer wrinkled his nose. "I remember, the place didn't stop smelling for a week."

"And you still slept in here _every_ night. Even I wouldn't have done it." Lister paused. "So come on, then. Where were ya?"

"If you must know, Listy, I just spent the night with our new guest."

"You serious?"

Rimmer smiled smugly. "Yes indeedy."

"Wait a second. Did she actually know you were in there, or were you just hiding away in the closet?"

Rimmer scoffed. "Lister, I'm far too much of a gentleman to stoop to hiding out in a woman's closet just to watch her sleep."

"Does that mean that hypnotism is gentlemanly, then?"

"Make fun of it as much as you like, Lister, see if I care." Rimmer said, crossing his arms. "But don't knock it til you try it – it really does work."

"Yeah, whatever you say, Rimmer." Lister replied. "Anyways, if what you're saying is true, you spent the night there."

"Yes."

Lister absently took another drag from his cigarette, exhaling the smoke through his mouth, forcing Rimmer to fan it away from his face with his hand. Then, Lister spoke. "So what'd you two do, then?"

Rimmer froze for a second. What had they done – that he could tell Lister about, at least? He didn't want to tell Lister what really happened. "We sat together and talked the whole night away." That would sound stupid.

Before he could really think about it, he heard his mouth talking without any instruction from his brain. "Well, Listy, let me just say that she's absolutely wild in the sack; nothing's off limits. She's got quite the dirty imagination, you know."

Lister stared at Rimmer. "You serious?"

"Of course I am, Listy. She couldn't get enough; she was begging me to keep on going." Rimmer said, putting extra emphasis on the word 'begging'.

"More like begging you to stop," Lister said, though he was a bit uncertain.

"Well, yeah," A voice, coming from the doorway, filled the room. "You have any idea how sore and numb women get after a couple romps in the sack?"

Rimmer froze, eyes wide open. Adelaide was standing there, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed against her chest and the corner of her mouth pulled up in a slight smirk. He could have sworn he saw her wink at him, but he wasn't sure.

She sidled up to Rimmer, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Course I'd ask him to stop eventually. But before that..." She smiled, a very satisfied smile. "He had to _do _something to get me to that point. Right, Rimmer?"

Rimmer was shocked. He had no clue what to say. What _was_ he supposed to say in a situation like this? He opened his mouth, and then closed it again, repeating the motions a few more times before finally spitting out a squeaky "Right."

"Anyways," Adelaide began, smiling seductively at Rimmer, leaning in so she was a few inches away from his ear. Whispering just loud enough for Lister to hear, she continued. "I'm feeling a bit better now, so how about an encore?"

"Uh..." Was all Rimmer managed to get out before a hand grabbed his own and began pulling him out of the room. The last thing he saw before he left was Lister, a look of complete shock on his face.

To be honest, Rimmer wasn't quite sure what was going to happen next. Where was she taking him? Was she... was she _really_ wanting to-

_Don't think that, _Rimmer thought. _It'll never happen. As if._

So instead of thinking, which seemed to send his mind spiraling off in the wrong directions, he just looked ahead, watching where they were going. Adelaide was no longer smiling like she had been in the sleeping quarters; instead, her expression was completely blank, showing no sign of what she was thinking. Turning a few more corners, she finally stopped, back facing the corridor wall. Before Rimmer knew what was going on, he felt a sharp slap across his face, the sound echoing off the walls. Cupping where his cheek had made contact with her hand, he looked up at her. She stared up at him through her eyelashes, an expectant look on her face. Her arms were folded against her chest once more, and she didn't look too happy.

It was silent. Then, Adelaide broke the silence.

"Mind explaining to me what that was about?"

"Well... I..." Rimmer stuttered, unsure of how to answer her question.

"Why did you tell him we'd slept together, when it wasn't true?"

That was a question that Rimmer could answer.

"Adelaide, I... I didn't mean to, it just sort of... slipped out." He said, cringing at how false that sounded. "I mean, I didn't intentionally…" Rimmer stopped, sighing.

"'It just slipped out'." Adelaide repeated, her tone expressionless.

Rimmer cringed again. She didn't seem pleased. Not that he could blame her.

She sighed, running her hands through her hair. "Why is it that I believe you?"

"You believe me?" Rimmer asked incredulously.

"Well, you don't exactly seem like the sort of person who would do it maliciously, and you do seem a bit sincere, so… I don't know, I guess it's believable."

Rimmer's shoulders sagged with relief, the rest of his body following suit. He opened his mouth to speak, but a finger on his lips silenced him.

"This doesn't mean that I'vde completely forgiven you, though. I just… am not as mad at you as I should be." She said slowly, a small smirk accompanying it.

Rimmer nodded. "Well, that's better than nothing." He said, and Adelaide nodded, looking down the hallway with a smile. "And even though I said it before, I'm really sorry."

"I know you are." Adelaide said, smiling at Rimmer. "Hey, do you want to go get something for breakfast? I swear, if I don't eat something soon, I might just have to eat my own leg."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, after a somewhat awkward breakfast with Adelaide and Lister, who had decided to join them (and throughout the entire meal, Rimmer tried to avoid _that_ subject as best as he could), Rimmer was left alone once more in the sleeping quarters, Adelaide announcing that she needed to shower, and Lister leaving to do something Rimmer had forgotten the moment he'd said it. With a content sigh, he flopped down on his bunk and pulled out a book. He absently flipped through the pages, not really paying attention to any of the words on them. He relaxed for a while, and then, without any warning, Holly appeared on the screen beside Rimmer's bunk.

"Good morning, Arnold." Holly said.

Rimmer didn't even look up from his book as he replied. "What do you want, you nosy goit?" He asked. Holly ignored the insult completely.

"Just thought you might want to know we've been travelling at the speed of light now for almost twenty-four hours, and we should be accelerating again shortly."

"Alright then." Rimmer said, nodding. A few moments of silence passed by, and Rimmer raised an eyebrow at the computer. "Is that all, Holly, or are you just waiting here for no reason?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that's all I had to say, but I'm not one hundred percent certain… was there something else I needed to mention? There could be, but…"

"Holly," Rimmer said, silencing the computer. "Obviously you have nothing else of importance to add to this conversation, so stop your babbling and shut up."

With that, the screen went blank, and Rimmer sighed, putting his book down. He glanced at his watch. 12:30. He hadn't even noticed the time flying past as he sat there. He stood up, walking out the door to try and find something good for lunch. Knowing that the nearest vending machine was most likely out of commission, he made his way over to the nearest one, a few corridors away.

The ship was unusually quiet at that time. Usually, there would be some sort of noise, but it was silent. He shrugged it off, not paying it much attention, and continued walking. Then, something caught his attention. Seeming to come from a room at the end of the hall were voices, only murmurs at his distance. Curious, he quietly walked up to the door, the voices becoming clearer.

"I can't believe I was stupid enough for something like this to happen…"

Rimmer's eyebrows knitted together. Lister. What on Io was Lister doing way out here? He walked closer to the door, only inches away from the entrance.

"Don't say that. You're being too harsh on yourself."

Rimmer's expression turned from confusion to shock. That sounded like Adelaide speaking. He peeked around the corner and saw Adelaide sitting on the bed, legs crossed, quite similar to how she had been sitting with him the night before. Across from her was an obviously frazzled Lister, his face belying how weary he was. _That's odd,_ Rimmer thought. He didn't remember him looking that awful that morning. Wanting to know what was going on, he hid behind the wall again, and listened to the rest of their conversation.

"It's true, though." Lister said, sighing. "I mean, if I'd have been more careful, this wouldn't be happening."

"Lister…" Adelaide said. A sigh, and then, "You know you can't just wish this away. I mean, you may feel like it's awful right now, but in the end, you'll be so happy it won't even matter."

For a second, there was only silence. Rimmer was honestly just confused. What were they talking about?

"You think so?" He heard Lister ask.

"Of course." Adelaide said softly. "You know how you told me you always wanted this? Well, it may not be in the most conventional of ways, and it's probably not exactly how you thought it would happen. But in the end, the means don't matter. All that matters is the result."

Rimmer peeked around the corner again. Adelaide had her hand on Lister's arm, and she was smiling comfortingly at him.

"I know, it's just, well… I'm a bit scared."

She nodded. "That's understandable. But there's no reason to be."

"I know," Lister repreated. "But still…" He began, but stopped, sighing. Smiling sympathetically, Adelaide gave him a quick hug. Pulling back, she spoke.

"Don't worry, Lister. You're going to make a great father."

**And there it is. Cliffhanger time! :P Anyways, please review, and I should hopefully finish chapter 9 within the next year :P Nah, it should be finished semi-soon, if my writer's block decides to bugger off for a little bit. But please review! That'll speed up the updating process by a ton! Anyways, hope to hear from some of you soon! :D**

**Carly**


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